


It's Cold Down Here

by NellTrancy



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Interesting, My take on how they get along under the sea, Other, Sad, headcanons, they/them pronouns
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-14
Updated: 2015-05-14
Packaged: 2018-03-30 13:10:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,402
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3938041
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NellTrancy/pseuds/NellTrancy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Malachite is a confused mess, and their individual gems, Lapis and Jasper, are just plain messes. One louder than the other. This is how their quality time together at the bottom of the sea plays out.</p>
            </blockquote>





	It's Cold Down Here

It’d been weeks since Malachite sank to the bottom of the ocean, Lapis bringing them down by sheer strength. The green gem became a being of two determined forces clashing together, therefore amounting into a confused mess. As they drifted down, the fish steered clear away from them, fearing for their life. Not to mention they could obviously feel the odd tension of the water as they approached.

Even as they hit rock bottom, Jasper kept resisting and fighting, resisting and fighting. After a few weeks, however, Jasper stopped trying to break free. After all the incessant fighting and rage, there seemed to be a distinct tranquility and an underlying suspicion on Lapis’ part.

They sat there for days, watching the fish finally come around and observing the change from brightness to darkness, day to night.

 One day, boredom got the better of Jasper. “Are we gonna unfuse yet?” she said through Malachite, bitterness on her tongue.

“Nuh-uh,” Lapis said, squinting at her mentally.

That ended their conversation that day.

 

Malachite felt a little better, though, as if the loneliness was being filled just a bit. They were also indifferent. These two feelings occurred at the same time. Malachite often suffered from headaches.

“You know, we can just unfuse and stop getting headaches,” Jasper said the next day.

Lapis replied: “No.”

And that was that.

 

The next day, Jasper was getting annoyed at how Lapis was being quiet. Jasper’s supposed to be the cool one. Not the little blue kid! She couldn’t dare let this little girl make her look like a stuttering fool.

“Hey, isn’t it _hard_ holding us in like this?” Jasper questioned, frustrated. “You can’t keep us like this forever.”

“Watch me,” the other half said simply.

“Oh please, I know you’re getting weaker just holding us in, you little bra--” She was cut off.

The water formed a cage around them, and then a dome around that, and then a whole room around that, and then what looked to be a castle made of water. “I’m not weak, and I’m not weakening,” Lapis said fiercely.

A mixture of fear and amazement filled Jasper. She was awed, and also satisfied that Lapis had finally spoken up.

“What is this?” Jasper wondered.

Lapis made the structure vanish. She didn’t answer.

Days passed after that, and then finally, Jasper said, “That was your home wasn’t it.”

Lapis was taken aback. “What?”

“That castle you made. Days ago. That was your home.”

Silence.

“You wanna go home so much,” Jasper began, “you can just let me go, and I’ll let you go and you can be on your way.”

“You don’t know me, Jasper.”

Jasper scoffed inwardly. “You think you’re so much better than me-- don’t you?”

No answer.

“Don’t you! Because you were born into this great home. I bet you got anything you wanted there. Ain’t that right. A spoiled little brat.”

Jasper felt something in Malachite harden. She kept going.

“I’ll let you know that I worked for every single thing I got. I didn’t just go on a mission because I had some little coincidental information. I worked up the ranks, and you’re here saying you’re so much better than me.” If she could spit on the floor, she would. Being that they would be living on this floor, she decided against it. “I’m worth ten of you,” she snapped.

“Do you think that matters now?” Lapis yelled, and the shockwave of her voice rippled through the ocean.

Jasper froze.

“You’re trapped here now, with me,” she growled through gritted teeth. “And you have no right to assume anything about me. So shut up and take imprisonment like a gem.”

“Oh, you mean you want me to hug my knees and mope like what you did back on the ship?” Jasper spat. “Like a gem, alright!”

“You talk a lot, don’t you,” Lapis said coolly. “A great thing about being in control is that I don’t have to listen to you. Isn’t that right? You’d know.”

“Why you--” Jasper balled sand in her fist.

“Brat?” Lapis smirked inwardly. “Funny thing. I don’t sound like a brat. _You_ do.”

Jasper went quiet.

Another day’s conversation concluded.

 

Jasper hoarded her courage during the next few days simply to put into real words the statement: “If we stay fused, you and I are going to eventually have to put our minds together. Literally.”

 “We’re already together,” Lapis muttered, already casually tossing the conversation aside.

The other half wouldn’t have it. “No, you don’t get it. Our minds aren’t actually together. You and I are still thinking separately. We’re practically talking to each other.”

Lapis thought of that for a moment. “So?”

“Urgh!” Jasper screamed in frustration. “You’ve been putting up an iron curtain of some sort so that you and I aren’t actually completely fused. You know that.”

“The only reason _you’d_ know is if you wanted to actually merge with me mentally,” Lapis retorted.

Malachite blushed against their will. “I was just checking,” Jasper said.

Lapis rolled her eyes inwardly. “If this is another ploy to try and get us unfused, it’s not working.”

“It isn’t!”

“Then what is it?” Lapis snapped, practically cutting the other gem’s response off.

Jasper didn’t answer. She wasn’t really sure why she brought it up. She just knew that it felt so lonely being in the same body and yet being so far away emotionally. She also hoped that Lapis didn’t know.

And so she was glad there was a separation.

But then again, if there weren’t one, then she wouldn’t be feeling like this at all.

But then _again_ , if they were unfused, then there wouldn’t be a need for the separation.

But if they were unfused, where could she be now?

 

After several more days and nights and days and nights, Jasper eventually started up conversation again.

“You _ought_ to be getting tired,” she uttered, exasperated.

“You stopped struggling weeks ago,” Lapis stated. “So tell me how I’m getting tired.”

A hodgepodge prominently made of embarrassment and arrogance filled Malachite.

“You gave up,” Lapis continued.

They watched the fish swim by, and saw a few watermelon Steven walking along the bottom of the ocean too. They mostly minded their own business. What that business was, Malachite didn’t care.

That night, as the moon rose to its peak, Jasper wondered aloud. “What were you made of, Lapis?” Awe and disgust and curiosity were fit into that one question.

Lapis answered bitterly, “Oppression, abandonment, and now? Vengeance.”

Malachite wasn’t sure whether her blood was running cold or it was just night time, and yet she was also so sure that her icy rage caused to temperature to drop.

It wasn’t until sunrise did Jasper dare counter. “You’ll get tired eventually.”

“Y’know, Jasper?” Lapis said, voice almost rising to a shout.

Jasper mentally watched Lapis speak, stunned. Maybe she was finally gonna give in.

“You know? You can stop trying to psych me into letting us unfuse, alright? Because if you’ve been where I’ve been, you’d know that I can take decades of this. Millenniums. I can stay right here, with you, for the rest of my whole life-- and I won’t get tired, Jasper. If you think that I can’t take this, well, you better harden your gem because _I_ was trapped in a mirror for so many years I lost count.” She paused and snarled. “You weren’t. So take it from a veteran when I say that you better ready yourself for the many, many years to come. Day after day, night after night, alone. I’d been rendered powerless. I’m not risking it now.”

Jasper could feel her fury as Malachite. She didn’t even know how to retort to that. It appeared that Lapis was a lot tougher than she’d thought she was.

Nonetheless, Jasper gathered her stubbornness and said, “Whatever. The Yellow Diamond’s gonna be here soon and they’ll come looking for me and put you in jail. A real one. They’ll _bubble_ you.”

“Or they’ll forget about us,” Lapis suggested, mentally going to the far corner of Malachite’s mind.

“Impossible. Peridot escaped before we crashed,” Jasper insisted.

Lapis snorted. “Or she’ll report us as destroyed.”

They stopped talking that night.  

Malachite’s upper eyes looked up at the sky, wondering when they’d be able to leave. Their lower eyes looked down at the sand. They felt as if they’d rip in half.


End file.
